Spiritual Practices
Openness

Quotes

Doubt is a state of openness and unknowing. It's a willingness to not be in charge, to not know what is going to happen next. The state of doubt allows us to explore things in an open and fresh way.
— Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields inInstructions to the Cook

Keeping a journal thins my skin. I feel open to everything, aware, charged by the acquisition of intensity.
— Doris Grumbach in Extra Innings

Radical openness is not wanting to miss what is going on. The spiritual dimension of life has always been equated with total self-giving of energy and vigorous involvement — elements of wholeheartedness.
— Vivienne Hall quoted in Earth and Spiritedited by Fritz Hull

Openness is a receptivity to everyone and everything. It is quite fundamentally an other-centeredness, a disposition of availability to others.
— Wayne Teasdale in The Community of Wisdoms edited by Wayne Teasdale and George Cairns

The old divines talked about the gift of faith. It seems to me that there is an earlier gift, a desire, an openness to receive the light when and if it is offered. This openness is a quality of perception like poetry or divination or the wonderful imagination of a happy child.
— Morris West in A View from the Ridge

By being receptive, we can avail ourselves of the spiritual wealth available to us. By being open, we can receive things beyond what we ourselves might imagine.
— Deng Ming-Dao in Everyday Tao

To live in an enchanting world we also have to assume a receptive posture rather than an exclusively active one. We can become skilled at allowing the world in, taking its secrets to heart and finding power outside of ourselves.
— Thomas Moore in The Education of the Heart

Mostly, heartful practice is about keeping the heart open to the world around us — to people, places, ourselves, and the divine. It means coming from a place of empathic attunement. It's about seeing the connections, the interlocking webs of energy among people and things, and residing as much as possible in that place of no separation.
— Belleruth Naparstek in Your Sixth Sense

Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.
— Chogyam Trungpa in The Essential Chogyam Trungpa edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian

Whether listening or reading teachings, we are like a vase meant to collect wisdom.
— the Dalai Lama